This invention relates to an improved apparatus and method for producing ignitable material. Both manual and automatically driven machines for handling combustible material have been known in the art for quite some time. Prior art attempts to create a material that is useful for producing a self-contained combustible product resulted in various unsatisfactory products. In particular, in the nature of products for use with outdoor barbecues and the like, the standard in the industry to date is a bag of petroleum impregnated charcoal briquettes. This product is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. To begin with, the use of petroleum products, such as lighter fluid, to create an easy to light charcoal briquette introduces those petroleum products into the atmosphere, not to mention the foods being cooked. Additionally, there is a small but legitimate concern that the petroleum products have the possibility of spontaneously combusting. Further, the products leave a stain and a residue when allowed to sit for very long in any one particular place. Additionally, the ash that remains is significant and not necessarily environmentally friendly.
Other than charcoal, it is known that some bags of wood chips have been sold, primarily for use in being placed on top of the charcoal to try to mask the petroleum flavor imparted by the lighter fluid impregnated briquettes. Additional problems arise when utilizing wood as the ignitable material in the nature of protruding or breaking through the bag because of the sharp edges on the wood chips. Applicant's co-pending U.S. application entitled A Combustible Bag For Igniting Material Contained Therein, provides an answer for the bagging of such wood chunks. It still remains, however, to solve the problem of providing an apparatus and method for producing ignitable material, in the form of wood chunks, that is suitable for use in outdoor barbecues and the like. That is, for producing an ignitable material where the material is wood chunks, specifically.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing an apparatus and method for producing ignitable material which does not use petroleum products such as lighter fluid, which does result in a product that is environmentally friendly, and which results in a product that is not noxious to the foods cooked by it. It, therefore, is an object of this invention to provide an improved apparatus and method for producing ignitable material, such as wood chunks, which is ignitable, which is environmentally friendly, and which does not impart a noxious flavor to the foods being cooked.